HATE MADE TO ORDER IN EUROPE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 26, 23 October 1937, Page 15

HATE MADE TO ORDER IN EUROPE

Town's Nationality Divided

"FDWARD HUNTER 'S strange tale of Bosbruck, the village that the Saar plebiscite divided into & French half and & German half is Coronet 's leading artiele for July. An international border commission came to Rosbruck after the plebiscite and diecovered a boundary stone dated 1830 in the middle of the road. An imaginary line was dr&wn through it, to correspond to the actu&l line on the map, and through the town too. Rosbruck is now Rosbruck to the French, Nassweiler to the German' facing them across the street, and it zneans prison on both sides of the border to let slip the wrong name. These people wero raised together. The eame blood flows in all. Now two German brownshirts tramp preciseiy up the flne layer of red soil that covers of the highway and contrasts vividly with the dull hard surfaCing of the French part where stroll caped French gendarmes, free arms waving and faces animated by conversatiom The Nazi swastika is on one side of the village and the French tricolor on the other. At ilrst the people tried to keep up their friendships and relationships. A group talking across the border would be dispersed on each side and the participants forbidden to talk. Now neither group has eyes for the other. The businessmen talk only to the businessmen beside themj the housewives sneah furtive glancee to each side before they smuggle a smile across the way, Children lose their.toys across the frontier. The lads who kick balls about have lost plenty of them that way. It i* strictly forbidden to pursue thepi; the toy is eonfiscated, the child whipped bach home. Once Hunter saw an agent trjcV bach a ball to a boy who stood helplesely on his half of the road. If it-

had been picked up it would have had to pass through all the customs regulations of both countries. At first the people were bewildered. i'hen. they drifted apart. Nest they begau looking through the houses across the way as if they were so much open field. Now they are not openly unf rieudly, yet to dine together they have to get out their passports, make sure their visas are in order, and go through the eame formalities as any other alien entering a coufttry. After dinner they return home the same way, German workmen who used to drink in the French taverns no longer do so. They c&n take no money out of their own country. Consequently, trade in the town has suffered, but each pide's private and business ties have solidifled. The French have too many dairy products and cannot sell them. The Germans have no butter on the table and cannot buy it, since they use more expensive eubstitutes. They go two miles to another town rather than cross the street. Hunter saw to what extent opposing political views and social and economic customs, even separate languages, could be nursed into existencef merely by drawing an arbitrary line. He is of the opinion that these differences are deliberately cultivated by higher public anthorities. Already variations in temperament have been created which wili be referred to in iater years as national differences. The next generation obviously wili dig much deeper this rut of separation -oaursed by this generation. He wondered how, soon they would dislike each other, how soon they would hate, and bow soon be eager to throw themselves body and soul into a war between the two sides.